Sunday, August 9, 2015

While Nohkalikai and Seven sister falls are the major
tourist attractions in Chirapunjee of Meghalaya. There
are few other falls which are seldom visited. Dainthlen and Kynrem are two such water falls which attract us with
their distinct beauty and Khasi folk tales associated with it.

Kynrem water falls

Kynrem falls thunders down in 3stages from the height of 305
mts and it is India’s 7th
highest waterfall. Due to its remote location and bad road condition generally
taxi drivers are reluctant to go there. My driver was kind enough to take me to
this waterfall along with my guide Batman. It is about 25kms from Chirapunjee
and 10-12 kms from Chirapunjee holiday resort where I stayed. Kynrem falls is
located in Thangkhrang park in East
Khasi Hills district. There are many view points to enjoy the waterfall.

View of the fall from a distance is brilliant though the
closest view from the road connecting to Bangladesh offers magnificent view of
the fall during the monsoon. In fact, it
was not possible to view the falls without getting wet by the water smoke
covered around the area. No need to say Monsoon is the best time to visit. It
was in its full glory as I was there in June. There were other parallel cascades
which adorned the main water falls.

Kynrem falls

View from the road below

Other parallel cascades along with Kynrem

Dainthlen water falls

I heard about the Dainthlen falls in the restaurant where I
had lunch. It is about 5-8 kms from Chirapunjee. Road to Dainthlen falls passes
through the most picturesque part of Chirapunjee. As we moved ahead we reached
a plateau and I was not sure whether we are on the right path as there was no
mountain to see the water fall. After reaching the fall I realized that we are
watching the fall and are right on top of the water fall itself. It is a soft
falls without much roaring sound. There is a protective railing from where
water descends. I had to do struggle to take complete picture of the water
falls. It was already evening and dusk was about to cover. Like any other Khasi
water fall, Dainthlen also has a legend. These Khasi folklores are interesting
and some are horrific stories like Nohkalikai falls.

Dainthlen is about a serpent, Thlen, who was a
monster serpent who was living in a cave nearby. He was not only a cruel
monster but also cunning. He had a pattern of killing people. If a group of
people were moving around the cave, he would choose half of them to kill. So
the safe bet was to walk alone but people were scared to walk alone. Like any
other stories, here comes a hero. A brave person from the village decides teach
him a lesson. He develops friendship with the serpent by feeding goats and one
day when Thlen brings his mouth out to eat goat, the brave man dropped the red
hot iron lump into serpent’s mouth and kills him. The people from nearby
villages pulls out the snake to the river bed and chops him into pieces. It was believed that every bit of the Thlen to be eaten up, otherwise, Thlen will be
able to recreate himself. Villagers were happy that Thlen is no more and didn’t
want him to come again. So happily villagers arranged a feast. Then story goes
that one of the women kept a piece for her grand child who couldn’t participate
in the feast and forgot to feed him. Then Thlen recreated himself and story goes on...

Whatever the legend, the bank of the river does look like
pieces of chopped snake meat. It was cracked and chopped. There were not many
tourists around. Weather was good. Neighborhood around the falls is perfect for
picnic.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Chirapunjee , the wettest place on earth is dotted with
innumerable water falls. Chirapunjee during monsoon is enchanting and treat to
our eyes. It is just not possible to escape from waterfalls in whichever
direction you drive. Though rivers in Chirapunee are of very short length, swollen
streams in monsoon plunge wherever they find space downwards. The
green mountains provide lovely background for the gorgeous waterfalls. It is
water water everywhere.I gave up
counting the number of water falls I visited after couple of days. But there
are few water falls which are very impressive by their beauty and also because of
the stories associated with them. I am posting these stories in two parts. This
is the first story.

This is the most common view of innumerable water falls in Chirapunjee

Nohkalikai falls

Nohkalikai falls is about 10 kms from chirapunjee. Chirapunee
is locally called as Sohra. This is the tallest plunge type water fall in India
and the fourth highest water fall in India in terms of height with 335 mts. Nohkalikai is a rain fed water fall. It will
be in its full charisma during monsoon and goes slim during winter. But it depends
on our luck to get a good view of the falls in monsoon as it plays hide and
seek due to unpredictable clouds and fogs. I kept half a day to test my luck
with Nohkalikai.

View of Nohkalikai falls from Chirapunjee resort

It was an enchanting view from the Chirapunjee resort where I stayed.
One sunny day I left for Nohkalikai only to see clouds by the time I reached
the falls. I decided to take a walk in the beautiful meadows around the falls.
Even after my walk and experiments with selfie and self timer clicks for more
than an hour, clouds didn’t give way to the water falls. Apart from the view
point on top, there are steps to go closer to the falls. I went down and
started waiting. Clouds quickly cleared for a while. But before few clicks
again it was covered. After couple of hours of wait I could only get a few good
shots. When water plunges down there is an exotic green pool formation at the
bottom which was very common around all the falls in Chirapunjee.

Nohkalikai falls

There is a heart wrenching story behind such a beautiful
water fall. Nohkalikai in Kahsi, a tribal language means ‘ jump of Ka Likai’.
The legends goes like this. There lived a woman called Likai in the village
Rangjyrteh. Women in Khasi tribes are called with prefix for respect as Ka. So
she was Ka Likai. Her husband who was a porter died leaving behind Kali Kai with
a baby girl. Having no other source of income for livelihood KaLikai had to
join as a porter ferrying iron from one village to other. She finds it
difficult to attend to her baby girl. Other ladies of the village persuaded her
to get married again as she needs a man
and her baby a father.Ka Likai gets into another marriage. But her
husband was all jealous looking at the attention Ka Likai was giving to her
baby. He couldn’t bear that. One day when Ka Likai was away for work, he killed
the baby and prepared a dish. Tired Ka Likai after returning from work,
naturally attracted with the delicious inviting smell, eats the curry. Though
she thinks of her daughter, she presumes she might be with the neighbors. She
finds the food tasty though she couldn’t recognize the meat. After the food,
she goes to pick her Kawi basket before going out to fetch the child. To her
horror, she finds her daughter’s fingers there. She trembles in shock and pain
knowing what she ate was her daughters flesh. Uncontrollable Likai attacks everyone
around her and runs away from the place until she reaches the edge of the water
falls and jumps in to the fall. In Kahsi Noh means jump. This fall is named in memory
of Likai who jumped …Sigh….

This is very disturbing story. Isn’t it? I wish no one
should ever face such a painful fate..

Meadows around the falls

This girl enticed me to buy her cinamon by posing to my cameras

Seven sister water falls

Seven sister falls is also called as Nohsngithiang falls. This
falls has several strands of cascades falling together. It was not exactly 7
strands. There were more than seven strands when I visited during the monsoon. Due
to fog, I hardly got a chance to see them. Water from the falls will flow down
to the plains and within few kilometers it enters into Bangladesh plains. I
guess, during winter this falls would disappear. I felt that too much hype was
given to this waterfalls and there are many were unknown, nameless falls as beautiful
as this falls if not more.